Improving water and sanitation
Oxfam is helping improve water and sanitation facilities for Bedouin communities near Bardala
Travel curtailed
Bedouins have traditionally roamed across the West Bank for generations but the Israeli policy of closure means they cannot travel as far afield as they used to.
Imm Mahmoud, 52, and her family live in a small dwelling just outside the village of Bardala. Life is basic and the children must travel many hours to get to school.
Photo: Alan Gignoux
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Turning the tap on in the West Bank
Clean water is at a premium in the West Bank, where people live under the strain of the continuing occupation.
In depth
Learn more about Oxfam's work in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel
Regular giving
Palestinian hospitality
Palestinian hospitality is renowned across the world. Here, grandmother Imm Mahmoud, who has four daughters and one son, welcomes visitors into her home with traditional sweet tea.
Photo: Alan Gignoux
New toilet
With funding from the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission, Oxfam has been working with the local municipality in order to improve sanitation facilities for Imm Mahmoud and her family. A new latrine was recently installed. She says: "Everything is a problem here. Things are not easy but this latrine helps me and the family."
Photo: Alan Gignoux
Well rehabilitation
Water is in short supply in the rural West Bank but Oxfam has worked with Fathi Khdirat, from the Jordan Valley Village Council, to rehabilitate old wells and Roman cisterns in the region in order to ensure that Imm Mahmoud and others have enough clean water for their daily needs.
Imm Mahmoud collects water from this cistern four times per day. She estimates that she carries 16 gallons of water each day across a distance of more than a kilometre.
Photo: Alan Gignoux
Water tanks
Here Fathi Khdirat shows one of many standard 1000 litre water tanks used to collect, or 'harvest' rainfall when it comes. The rainy season lasts just a few months during the winter.
Photo: Alan Gignoux
Difficult to get around
Getting around the West Bank is not easy. Access, even for international humanitarian workers, is not free because of checkpoints and other restrictions, and many roads across the West Bank are poorly surfaced with dangerous potholes.
Photo: Alan Gignoux
